Elder scrolls online: the war begins
by Skidoworo
Summary: This is a story I'm currently working on that is still WIP. BUT IS BASICALLY a POV styled story with multiple character of different races and how they're involved in the coming war of the three factions of the tamriel. Our story starts with Jorunn a nord who leads his group of 300 men on a scouting mission to a forest in high rock, and find themselves something unexpected.


This is a story I'm currently working on, it's a WIP as of now, and needs tons of work and editing. So if I could get some opinions and croticism that'd be great help! But please let it be constructive criticism, no insults are needed.

a chapter for elder scrolls story

POV character Jorunn Ragnavak

"It's bloody cold" the argonian hissed. Jorunn turned to his scaled comrade, shaking from horned head to clawed toe. He laughed "it would seem cold to you, being cold blooded and all. How did you figure you'd fair this far north?"  
Chulz had an irriatated look upon his face "I figured summer would bring warmness, and the mountains not so treacherous!" Chulz was Jorunn's close friend, ever since this bloody war began and before. Chulz sat down against a tall oaken tree, "I'd had hoped this forest wouldn't had been quite as cold either. you even said I'd feel at home with all these trees around." He sneezed "but none of this is even close to being like the black marsh and far from feeling as welcoming." Jorunn knew his friend was anxious of the land, being behind enemy territory and in a forest where they were not familiar wasn't a brilliant plan his superiors made. The climb up the mountain and down through skyrim and high rocks border was dangerous enough, their large group suffering from attrition and losing wagons on the climbs and comrades from rock slides and falling off the edges of the mountains. "Aye, this forest is strange, and makes us all nervous but we can't turn back now. We're to keep moving." Chulz rubbed his hands together for warmth "let us hope we don't run into the Raven's lord" The leaders of the ebonhart pact had finally been fed up with the scouts and ambush specs from the daggerfall covenants raven lord and his pack of crows, bandits and thieves is what high lord raggor called them, only here to bother us. Jorunn doubted such things, the so called raven lord had attacked and ambushed many scouts and people of the ebonharts who were crossing from skyrim to high rock and vice versa. Though they still had yet to find out if ravens lord even had any relations and allegiance to high king Emeric, it's been rumored, from survivors of his attacks and messages left behind.  
"He's not why we're here though, we're here to scout this forest. Knowing our enemies territory is important." Jorunn threw another stick in the fire that they had put together, making the tongues of fire kick up more. "Yes but he's still a threat, not many know who he is and where he is, he seems to be all around. What if he's in this very forest?" He was still shaking from the cold, even after fueling the fire more. "I doubt he'd be here right now, most of the fightings in cyrodiil now since the main forces of our enemies are fighting for the ruby throne."  
It was true the fighting in cyrodiil had started, and was getting more and more ferocious and bloody by the coming days. The first faction to attack or declare war isn't exactly known now but all agree that all of them advanced their armies at the same time and place. Cyrodiil had become a battle field no matter where you went, inns and villages were plundered and ravaged, while castles had either been besieged or razed to the ground. The imperial city itself, home to the ruby throne and white tower, was under siege by all three warring powers with no outcome as of yet. 'The imperials are as stubborn as skyrim is damned cold' the imperial city wouldn't probably for another year, till the they needed to defeat their other foes.

Jorunn took another look at Chulz, his black and red reptilian skin shining off from the fire. 'You've heard too many rumors my friend, it's made you paranoid.' He thought, Chulz sneezed again, this time louder, "Jorunn, what are we really doing here?" Jorunn was puzzled "what? Scouting, as lord raggor demanded, we are to obey his orders." "Yes but For what reason? This forest is much to far from wayrest and tactically doesn't seem advantageous at all." He urged on. "And if we were scouting why would Raggor send 100 men over the border to scout a forest where only 20 is really needed?" Chulz pulled out a skin of ale, and drunk from it.  
"I'd say bad leadership but not even I know the truth Chulz, I want to get this over with as much as you do." He pulled himself up to his feet, and grabbed for his axe. "Your paranoia is clouding your wits Chulz, you need rest, you hadn't slept through the entire passage across the mountains." He placed the axe in his belt, "I'm gonna go have a look around the forest for a while, I won't be long" as he was grabbing for his helmet, Chulz grabbed his wrist, grasping tightly. Chulz looked as if he had seen a ghost "say what you want Jorunn,but I feel uneasy here, something isn't right in this forest...be careful" Chulz let go, Jorunn gave him a nod of reassurance. "I'll keep an eye out for anything suspicious, now rest" Chulz wrapped himself in a cloak trimmed with wolf fur and closed his eyes.  
'Rest easy my friend, you'll need it.'

The camp was a mismatch of nords, dark elves, and some argonians here and there sitting around fires, telling tales and stories, small games of chance with dice, and eating and drinking. 'Atleast they need not worry of mountains any more.' Those mountains had been as treacherous as they expected, even for a nord the winds and mountains were dangerous. this forest provided more comfort even with the strange feelings it evoked in ones self. A dark elf turned to Jorunn "salutations captain, care to join us in a game of dice?" He raised a hand, "maybe another time, I'm on duty." He continued on with his stride out of the camp. He passed the last few tents on the end of their camp and looked about. Not even a single sign of life aside from their camp. 'Chulz was right, something is wrong with this forest.'

He continued further into the forest and away from the camp, the dawn had come even though he could not see the sky. The trees from the forest had grown so dense that they blotted out the sky and stars, making the traveling through the forest at night almost impossible without the sky for directions. 'I shouldn't travel far... I'll lose the camp...' A small light green glow reflected off a tree, he saw from the corner of his eye. "What in oblivion..." He walked toward the glowing reflection, not knowing what it could be. He reached the tree, and saw the green glow, a symbol of some sorts. Jorunn inspected it further, "...is this?...arcane arts?" The art of the arcane sand mages was something Jorunn Ragnavak was no expert in, but he knew an arcane symbol when he saw one. It was in the design of a hand with slithered tips at each finger, this symbol he had no clue of what it stood for. "Restoration?...conjugation? Damn mages have a spell for just about everything..." He motion his hand to touch it, the green glow of the symbol grew brighter, he then brushed his hand across the symbol. After removing his hand, a sudden spark lit from the symbol. The spark lit the entire symbol on fire, 'nine divines! Fire! Damned mages and their symbols!' He looked around, he needed to extinguish the fire, a forest fire would be quite the smoke signal to the daggerfall covenant, and if they're found and captured, this would've all been in vain. He looked all around, every corner for anything to put out a fire. 'Leaves, no. Dirt! Dirt is good.' He quickly cupped his hands together and scooped dirt from the ground nearest the tree. He flung the dirt at the burning symbol, to his dismay it didn't quite work as effectively, he needed an alternative 'not dirt? Oblivion, ugh uhm...wait! Water!' Then suddenly he remembered his water cask, jerking his hand to his side to untangle it from his belt. Uncorking the top and sloshing all of it on to the symbol, hoping it would go out. Luckily the fires quelled, leaving only burned marks and a still green glow on the symbol, he backed away from the scorched symbol and the tree it laid upon. 'What in oblivion...what was that? A trap? Signal? Who would place this symbol here?...or why?' Jorunn dared not think too long about it,his lingering there made him more anxious with every passing second. "I must tell Chulz...no... I need a Mage here to see this..." He turned around and started back to the camp, sprinting to save time. He looked around the forest 'wait... Where do I go? Where did I come from? Am I still west? East? Damned forest' he had no idea how his scouts had overlooked those symbols, 'I sent five scout groups! They should've swept this area clear!' he suddenly fell from under himself, snagging his foot in ground root. Next thing he knew, he was on the ground with a pain running up his ankle and shin. 'Damned forest... Twisted my ankle... Nothing I can't walk off...' He pushed himself up, a shock of pain ran up his ankle. He tried walking on it in hopes of it wearing off with time quickly. Jorunn tried to focus his sight, searching for any glimpse of light to view his camp, it was proving fruitless till he glimpsed a small shimmer of light at a distance, it was faint...but no matter it was a sign of hope of him getting back. He started walking limply towards the small flicker of light, groaning with each step. He passed through bushes and branches, he didn't remember this way. He turned his head- AWHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! 'What the-' AWHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO a horn cut his thoughts off. His group had no horns among them, and they'd checked every person before... Oh no.

The flickering light suddenly turned into a rising red flare, soaring in the air lighting every corner of the forest, the camp was now visible from a distance. Jorunn tried his best to run towards the flare, an uproar of shouts and cries arose from the distant camp in front of him, with the sounds of steel on steel and chants. When he reached the camp borders, he saw what appeared to be shadowed figures attacking and clashing with his men. all around was struggle and brawling, the same dark elve he saw before was on the ground with half his face burned, scorched to a black char, with the same dice he offered him before in his cold dead hands. he tried to move faster, 'I must find Chulz... This doesn't make sense' he felt helpless without his ankle. he tried to raise his head and found that his men had been cut down faster than he anticipated, a shadow figure rushed one man from the front while another rushed him from the back with a dirk, stabbing through him like a nice through soft cheese. Another man tried pulling the shadowed figure with the dirk off his already dead comrade but was struck in the neck with an arrow before he could even grasp the dirk wielding figure. Jorunn tried grabbing for an axe on the ground, gripping the handle tightly for dear life, waiting for someone to approach him. A shadow figure suddenly dropped from the sky, unsheathing his sword fast and ready to battle. Jorunn planted his feet down as well as he could, 'talos give me strength...' The shadow figure rushed him with his sword in a upswing motion, Jorunn prepared his move and tried his best to dodge, moving right to dodge. The sword that came down merely grazed him across the arm, making Jorunn wince but not fall,he tried turning again but behind the figure and grabbed for his arm. with a firm grasp, he pulled the figure down and turned his weight unto the hand he was wielding the axe with and struck as hard as he could on the figures face or what he could see of it. His axe hit its mark and the shadow figure stopped moving, with a blood stream running out from his forehead. he didn't know the man but dared not waste time examining him, he needed to find Chulz. He pulled himself up, with a groan and streak of pain up his leg he raised himself up and moved forward. everywhere he looked men were fighting and dying around him, arrows hitting men from almost every direction, swords clashing and striking their foes with swift strokes. One man he saw was leaning against a tree branch was trying his hardest to breath but could not grasp any air, seeing as his throat was cut open and flooding blood that seemed to go on endlessly. BOOM! A sudden explosion from the middle of a group of men fighting, throwing and tossing them around the area, debris flying as well. Jorunn had seen it from a distance and had found a limb of what he thought was one of his men he presumed, leaving it there for whoever lost it. In the chaos of the camp he could not find Chulz or anything, he searched everywhere trying to avoid anymore enemies in fear of crippling himself further. Finally he lost his breath, and fell to one knee grasping for breath and starting to grow tired, losing sight of the ground and his feet. Trying to keep conscious he looked up and saw a shadow figure above him, "who are you?" Jorunn demanded. The shadow figure raised his fist "death from above." And then the next thing Jorunn saw was a mailed fist, knocking him out cold.

Jorunn saw darkness, pitch black darkness and only small whispers from voices he didn't know. Jorunn started to see something, and feeling returned to him as well, he saw dirt, and grass. He was on the ground, his head was in a whirl of pain, and he couldn't move. his hands were shackled tight, craving his hand with every struggle to get free. 'Whats happened?... I thought the worst was behind us...instead I lead my men into a trap...now they've been slaughtered..' Suddenly a hand grabbed him by the collar of his boiled leather, jerking him upward. "Up nord." A man behind him growled, he couldn't see the man, but he knew the man was bigger than him by far. He was pushed along through the camp, or at least was left of it. Tents and wagons were utterly desolated and burned, with dead piling up on each other. Two cloaked men were heaving and tossing bodies into piles on the left of Jorunn, most likely to be left for the crows or something. To his right, some more cloaked men were scavenging through his dead men's belongings, finding gold and trinkets. Jorunn wanted to yell at them but wouldn't, if he did they might just kill him now...but why hadn't they already? He was dressed like all of his men and looked like no high ranking serjeant or captain. So why keep him alive? maybe just for questioning and torture, but Jorunn was skeptical. His leg ached and pained him, every step made him groan, but he didn't stop he couldn't. Finally they approached a group of the cloaked men standing around one of his men, from the look of him they must have been interrogating him. The mans face was bruised and bloodied with his face swollen, his beard dripping with his own blood and spittle. the cloak figure grabbed the man by the collar, and with another hand grabbed his throat. "Again nord, why're you here? I won't be anymore polite than I am now. The ebonhart pact is planning invasion aren't they? Spit it out!" He smacked the nord across the face. The nord turned his head back, and spat in the mans face, leaving a blood spatter on both their faces. "There... I spit it out...nasty ain't it?..." The nord chuckled, and another smack was laid upon the other side of his face. The cloaked man turned back to his own men, "we won't get anything out of this stubborn bastard. He's useless." One of the cloaked men swayed a motion with his hand, and the other who was interrogating nodded. "Hey..." He snapped his fingers in the nords face to get his attention, the nord looked up and suddenly found the cloaked mans dagger sliding across his neck opening it from ear to ear. Grasping for breath, he was kicked down on his back to drown and choke in his own blood. Jorunn tried not to look but was being held in place by the man behind him. "Another useless one, these men are stubborn shits. We'd do better to just kill them all.." The man with the dagger said, "no... We need information now, this is a big group for just scouting. Edwyn, I need more captives to interrogate." He turned to the shorter man to his right, who Jorunn presumed was Edwin. "Yes m'lord... Oh... Seems their captains awake m'lord." They all looked at Jorunn, their eyes feeling as if they were piercing right through him. The Lord motion toward Jorunn, "bring him here, I have much to ask..." Jorunn was then pushed forward onto his knees In front of The Lord, not feeling his leg anymore. "Hm, clever, you dressing like your men to confuse us-" , "who are you?" Jorunn interrupted. The man made another Hand motion, and the man behind him smacked him on the back of his head. The pain was dreadfully, as if a hammer had hit his skull. "I'll be asking the questions...anyway, who are you and why're you here?" Jorunn looked up at The Lord, his face was covered by a mask, a black one shaped like a face without a mouth and patterns of symbols and such. But through the mask, Jorunn could see his eyes, his eyes were a bright orange that could be noticed from even a mile away. "I'm... Jorunn... Captain of this expedition... And... I'm here on jarls business..." Trying to make a half lie, not even knowing why he was exactly sent out here. " him, so it would seem, but not even expeditions require more 100-200 men, in fact that's more a size of a raiding force..." Another man walked next to The Lord, raising his left hand to cover the side of his mouth while he whispered an incoherent message to him. The Lord looked upward, "really now? Hm..." The Lord turned back to his comrades, "more symbols have been discovered, retrieve Aric he'll be ecstatic to examine them.." The Lord turned back to Jorunn, "you wouldn't know anything about these symbols would you?... They appeared throughout this forest as of late, even in cyrodiil some occurrences have involved symbols of similar looks." Jorunn couldn't say, he hadn't known about them till last he touched one. "No..." The Lord stared at him once more then turned, "oh well...back to the matter at hand, you and your force are here with wagons, and weapons. I can't help but be suspicious, well... Not as much anymore, heh I've shortened your force quite a bit haven't i?" A few laughed in the group of men surrounding them, Jorunn wanted to kill them all, his rage was getting hard to hold back. "Heh... Do you know who I am? captain?..." Jorunn only had one notion and it was painfully blunt, Jorunn responded "the ravens lord...and his band of crows..." The men around laughed again but this time a little louder, The Lord did as well. "Hah, yes yes yes, that's me. Though I hadn't known I had crows? Is that what they call us now? mmmm I quite like the sound of that... The ravens lord and his band of crows! Haha" more laughter ensued around them. "Ahhh, you've proven to be the most entertaining of our interrogations yet, tell me captain what are you scouting?..." Jorunn didn't know how to answer, he didn't know what to answer. "I...I..." Jorunns voice was caught in his throat."so you don't know either? Hm... Well I suppose this was just a small attempt for the ebonhart to get us from behind...a noble attempt but in vain.." A group of cloaked men with bow and arrows slung across their backs approached the group, the leading archer spoke first "no sign of stragglers sir, nor any sign of the argonian." The Lord turned to him "you searched every corner? You said he'd be dead by the time you found him." " he should be, an arrow to the back would be fatal if not removed after a time." The Lord walked towards him, "it seems our scaled friend is more acquainted to the forest like his black marsh." Was he talking about Chulz? Jorunn hadn't seen him among the dead, did he escape? Oh gods I hope so. The Lord turned back to Jorunn, "so, captain you seem to not know what you're doing here any more than your men did. Let's try something else shall we? Where'd you come from? Where'd you get your orders?" Jorunn looked down.."I...we came from whiterun...we grouped there at least..." He tried to keep from blurting out any information he deemed secret. "Ah! Whiterun! Lovely place, haven't heard much about there lately. My birds haven't seen anything outta the usual lately..." He said ponderously "your birds?-" he stopped as soon as The Lord stepped towards him. "Nothing for you to mind, I see you haven't been much help captain... I'm sad to say I'm going to have to dispose of you...Deric!" He waved his hand and a cloaked man came forward "nighty night nord." And with that the mans heel of his boot hit Jorunn in the face, once again knocking him into a dark sleep...hearing voices again and feeling as if he'd been carried, and the sounds of horses... "And off you go my dear captain..." And then total darkness and nothing else...


End file.
